The W line is a very unique piece of railroad history and this suggestion focuses on the northern part of the line (Spartanburg, SC - Asheville, NC). First off this line features the poster child of the western carolinas and that being the Saluda Grade. The grade features sharp turns and steep grades. The grade reached a peak of 4.8% in some sections. This can offer very fun and unique gameplay due to the danger running this line and not wanting to have a runaway train. This line features coal, woodchip, and mixed manifest operations. The line usually takes lots of coal traffic to the duke power plant in NC. If this line were to ever make it to TSW 2, there are two ways this could go. 1970s Southern Railway This could feature the Belmont coal trains. The southern railway could also introduce both high hood locomotives and long hood forward operations. These could make gameplay more fun and challenging with locomotives such as the SD40-2 and SD45-2. 1990s Norfolk Southern This could feature the same trains as the southern but with more modern freight cars and NS branded cars. This could feature the NS SD60 and C40-9. SD60s would traverse this line and were usually on most of the trains here and could be geared for LHF operations. The C40-9 would be a good fit for the line since these were also some very popular engines to use the line. I want to keep these suggestions as realistic as possible because I know that these routes take a lot of time and effort to develop. I hope these suggestions do one day make it to TSW, but you never know.
I’ve suggested this before as well! I think running Saluda would be great and challenging! Here’s about a 20 min video with how to run the grade.
